The Frontier Peoples of Western Dehong

                                    by Jim Goodman

Dai farmer and his son riding buffaloes outside of Ruili

       Dehong in southwest Yunnan is an Autonomous Dai and Jingpo Prefecture.  Only about 20% of Dehong consists of plains and valleys.  The rest of the prefecture is hilly or mountainous and has a forest cover of around 60%, the highest rate in the province.  The population tops one million, with the Han a slight majority.  The Dai dominate the plains and valleys, while the Jingpo constitute the largest ethnic minority in the hills, especially in the western part of the prefecture.  Han Chinese only began migrating to Dehong after the eradication of malaria in the early 50s and largely, but not entirely, reside in the urban areas.

       The Dai are not the only indigenous folks in the plains, nor are the Jingpo the only hill people.  As for the Han, some also have farms in the plains, while others work in the coffee and tea plantations in the hills ,such as Dachang, east of Lianghe.  Such Dehong features become apparent when taking a trip from Tengchong, just north of Dehong in Baoshan Prefecture, to Ruili in southwest Dehong.

Nandin Xuanfu, the former palace in Lianghe

       Lianghe, the first city on the route, is an easy ride through the plains from Tengchong.  But even when I visited two decades ago the city was thoroughly modernized, almost entirely Han-inhabited.  The only Dai elements consisted of a couple small restaurants, a pagoda in the inverted bell shape built around 1980, and the palace of the former Dai ruler.

       This is the city’s main attraction, originally built in 1851, when Lianghe was known as Nandin.  The palace (Nandin Xuanfu) consists of seven connected courtyards, with gardens, pools and red brick buildings with dark gray, tiled roofs.  The doorways from one courtyard to another are circular or oval, a feature seen in many temples in the prefecture as well.  Here the district’s chaopha (Lord of the Sky in the Dai language) lived in sumptuous splendor, while lesser members of the aristocracy owned smaller houses, but still in marked contrast to the simple dwellings of the commoners.

Achang woman

Achang woman returning from the fields

       The Dai in Dehong speak a different dialect than the Dai further east and use a different alphabet than that used in Xishuangbanna.  They generally live in houses of gray-brown brick and tiled roofs that sit on the ground.  In rural villages some build homes, one or two stories, with walls of plaited split bamboo, with roofs of tin or thatch.  Like other Dai, they are accomplished rice farmers, with irrigation canals that intersect the fields and provide a source of fish.  Dehong rice is especially tasty and that grown in Zhefang district in Luxi County was one of the tribute items demanded by the imperial Qing Court.  The prefecture is also famous for its pineapples.

countryside near Yingjiang

       Dai villages lie west and south of Lianghe, but to the north and east lie settlements of the Achang minority nationality.  The Achang in Yunnan number a little over 40,000, nearly all of whom live in Dehong.  Another 2000 or so reside across the border in Myanmar.  Chinese historical records indicate the Achang were living in Dehong in the 13^th century. 

       They speak a Tibeto-Burman language and under imperial China enjoyed a measure of autonomy.  But their chieftains were subordinate to the Dai chaopha, who could make tax and service demands on the Achang as he wished.  Consequently, Dai culture has had a strong influence on the Achang.  They live in the same kind of gray-brown brick houses, practice Theravada Buddhism, with a temple in each village, and dress similarly.

Yunyan Pagoda near Yingjiang

       The men wear a side-fastened, long-sleeved, dark jacket over trousers.  The married women dress in the same back sarong as the local Dai women, with a long-sleeved blue or black jacket, also similar to that of the Dai.  The main difference is the headgear—a tall, tubular, brimless black hat.  Unmarried girls wear no hat, but tie their braids over their heads.  They also wear trousers instead of sarongs.

       The other major Achang concentration is in Husa district, Longchuan County.  Besides boasting the finest Achang Buddhist temple, Husa is renowned for its swords.  The tradition is a very ancient one among the Achang and they are so skilled at it that other peoples around them rely on Achang swords rather than make their own.

De'ang woman

Burmese-style tiered pagoda near Yingjiang

      The sword is like a machete, used to chop bamboo and wood, in defense against wild animals and bandits and part of local military gear.  The Lisu use Husa swords in their Climbing the Sword Ladder festival.  And Jingpo men brandish them upright during the ceremonial dance of the Munao festival.

Three Elephants Pagoda, Zhangfeng

       The Lisu and Jingpo minorities are especially prominent in the mountains of Yingjiang County, the next one west of Lianghe.  Yingjiang city is 50 km distant, after crossing a mountain to get to it.  Like Lianghe, its population is manly a Han, but with some minority touches, like a Jingpo statue and Munao festival house and arena, Dai elephant sculptures and a few Dai restaurants.  Jingpo swarm into Yingjiang for the Munao events, but rarely otherwise.  The Lisu live in the northern mountains and seldom venture to the city.  Dai villages constitute the city suburbs, so they are often in town during the day, the women in black sarongs and carrying their goods in baskets at each end of a bamboo pole.

Guangmu Pagoda, Jinghan

       Yingjiang was built around a reservoir a few km west of the Daying River.  A long, straggling Dai village lies between the city and the river.  A path at the end of the cemetery (Dehong Dai bury their dead) leads to the Yunyan Pagoda.  Rising from a square base, it consists of a white mound, with brass spires, topped with filigreed silver crowns, the central pagoda towering above forty smaller ones.  A nearby temple features a modest assembly hall and a five-tiered, pale red pagoda in a very different style from Yunyanta.  The resident monks, as in Myanmar, wear red robes.

       The road from Yingjiang to Zhangfeng, the administrative seat for Longchuan County, measures 136 km.  It crosses the Daying River and runs along the eastern side until entering Longchuan County, crossing high mountains tp gradually descend into the plains and Zhangfeng, seven km from the border town of Laying.

       Longchuan is about the same size as Lianghe, but had more of a non-Han feel to it back then.  Foreigners could only stay in the Hongchuan Binguan, a few blocks from the central market, but sited alongside a plain with a good view of the mountains to the west.   Dai, Bai and Achang restaurants were nearby and at the latter I tried the Achang specialty—guoshou mixian (over-the-hand rice noodles). 

       The noodles are made from reddish hill rice, served with chopped and ground pork, peanuts, chili, coriander, sauce and soup.  Achang folks take a handful of noodles and add the other ingredients, which gives the dish its name.  I and other non-Achang diners however, preferred to use chopsticks.

Jingpo men in Zhangfeng on market day

       Also near the hotel stood the finest religious monument in Zhangfeng—the Dai-style Three Elephants Pagoda.   All white, its base sits on a small island underneath the sprawling branches of a huge pipal tree, with the central spire rising above the three sculptures of trumpeting elephants.   Other pagodas in the suburbs and beyond were the Burmese kind, with several tiers of tin roofs, each level smaller than the one below.

       Jinghan, 12 km  northeast of Zhangfeng  is a nondescript town that was formerly the county capital.  Just outside town is the hilltop Guangmu Pagoda, accessible by a flight of about 300 steps.  On a white mound with a bronze spire, its original construction dates to 1632 and marks the spot where Dehong Dai believe Buddhism was first established in the prefecture.

Lisu woman in Zhangfeng

Dai food stalls in the Zhangfeng market

       Every five days Zhangfeng hosts open market day, attracting people from both sides of the border.  Besides the Dai, Jingpo and Lisu from the mountains to the northeast show up, hawking hill crops, deerskins, split-bamboo baskets and other items.  A few De’ang women may also turn up, recognizable by their bright, multi-colored jackets and headscarves, woolen tassel earrings, striped sarong and perhaps, like some Jingpo women, rattan rings around the hips.

rural Dai temple, Longchuan County

       From the Mon-Khmer linguistic group, the De’ang population is only half that of the Achang,.  A few scattered De’ang villages lie in the hills near the Myanmar border, but most of Dehong’s De’ang live in Santaishan district, especially in the hills south of the main road om the way up to the Buddhist cave temple at Sanjiaoyan.  They live in stilted wooden and bamboo houses with thatched roofs and, like their Dai neighbors, practice Theravada Buddhism.

       The last of western Dehong’s cities is Ruili, 37 km south of Zhangfeng, the largest of the four.  From the 8^th-12^th centuries it was the capital of Mengmao, the most powerful  kingdom in the immediate region.  The Mongols conquered it in the 13^th century and the Ming Dynasty reasserted Chinese suzerainty in the 14^th century.  It retained a measure of local autonomy until the 20^th century and in recent decades has become important because of its commercial ties to neighboring Myanmar.

Dai women cycling home from the fields west of Ruili

       Ruili has all the hallmarks of a prosperous border town, with skyscrapers and expensive hotels towering above the rows of royal palm trees on the main streets.  It rises late, with few shops open before 10 a.m., and stays active late, with most people having dinner after dark and the warren of shops and stalls inside and outside the covered central market busy until midnight.  Many Burmese wander through town, including individual jade merchants hawking ornaments to Chinese tourists who came to Ruili specifically to buy jade.

       The other Ruili feature drawing Chinese tourists two decades ago was its proximity to the Myanmar border.  They could take a short trip from Ruili to Jiehao, step across the border to the other side and be able to say they’d been to a foreign country, even if but a few hours.  The main road, Highway 320, ran another 34 km southwest from Ruili to Nongdao, at the extreme end of the prefecture.

       The road ran more or less parallel to the Ruili River, a branch of the Nu River that, after crossing the boundary, becomes the Salween River.  The road runs in a straight line, but the river is somewhat winding, so that pieces of Myanmar territory lie between the river and the boundary line.  And at Jiehao, a chunk of Chinese territory lies south of the river.

the Snake Tree near Mengling

       The land is relatively flat on this route, featuring a succession of Dai towns, villages and farmlands, a rural relief after the bustle of Ruili.  Every Dai village has a temple, usually a modest wooden one, but occasionally grander, with multi-tiered pagodas in the Burmese style, flanked by tall bamboo poles with long, narrow cloth banners fluttering from the top and great banyan trees in the courtyards.  Hansha Temple, a few km from Ruili, and Leizhuangxiang, on a hill north of the highway and further down towards Nongdao, are two fine examples.

       The most famous is Dadenghan Temple, 20 km southwest of Ruili, near Jiexiang.  On stilts, with red wooden walls and silver-colored roofs and pagoda spires, with a covered entrance corridor, it is typical of the Dehong Dai Buddhist style.  It was built in the 18^th century and is supposed to house bone relics of the Buddha.  According to local legend, the Buddha stopped for a night here on his mission to preach the religion throughout Asia.

Jiele Pagoda, Dehong's finest

       East of Ruili, Highway 320 runs 25 km to Wanding, the last major town before the boundary of Luxi County.  It’s not much to look at today, but from the hill behind it, especially from the Thousand Buddhas Temple on top, one has a commanding view of the city and Myanmar beyond the bridge.  Wanding had a brief flare of importance in the Second World War as the terminus of the Burma Road, established after the Japanese seized eastern China and the government removed to Chongqing.  Tons of supplies, food and weaponry crossed into Yunnan from the British colony of Burma, until the Japanese conquered Burma and closed the road.

       Returning to Ruili, I made two last stops at Mengling and Jiele.  The former town hosts a patch of old banyan trees, with multiple roots descending from their lower branches.  One is called the Snake Tree, similar to the Single Tree That Makes a Forest in another park in SE Yingjiang County, as well as the one of the same name in Daluo, Xishuangbanna. 

       Jiele’s attraction is its pagoda, the finest in Dehong, originally erected in 1500 and restored ten times since, most recently in the 1980s.  The central spire, rising above several subsidiary golden spires, stands on a white base with the top part covered in dark orange tiles, unique in the prefecture.  With views of Dai farmers riding their buffaloes on the way back to Ruili, it was a fitting way to close my exploration of Dehong, a day of history, culture and everyday rural Dai life.

Dadenghan Monastery

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Dance of the Swords—the Jingpo Munao Festival

                                                            by Jim Goodman

Jingpo girls at a Longchuan County fair

    Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture lies in the southwest corner of Yunnan Province, surrounded on three sides by Myanmar.  Besides the Dai who dominate the plains and the Jingpo,  Dehong is also home to Hua Lisu in the western hills and two smaller minority nationalities—the De’ang and the Achang.  Both of these peoples show heavy influence by their Dai neighbors in domestic architecture, agriculture and religion. The De’ang number close to 18,000, are dispersed in southern Dehong and reside in parts of Lincang Prefecture as well.  The Achang are more numerous, about 33,000, 90% of whom live in Lianghe and Longchuan Counties.  They have historically been more culturally important to Dehong because in Husa, their main cultural center, they produce the swords used by everybody in the prefecture.

    All but a few of Yunnan's 120,000 Jingpo live in the southwestern prefecture of Dehong, mostly in the mountains at 1500 meters or higher.  Across the border in Myanmar the Jingpo are the largest of six ethnic groups (including Lisu) that are classified as Kachin, a Burmese word.  They originated in the mountains along the eastern edge of the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau and migrated south to northern Myanmar and western Yunnan.  By the early 15th century they were numerous enough in Dehong that the Ming government created two autonomous Jingpo districts and appointed one Jingpo chieftain in each as hereditary headman (tusi).

elderly Jingpo wo

    The following century witnessed a great migration of Jingpo to Dehong's mountains.  They became the largest ethnic group in the hills and today comprise one-eighth of the prefecture's population.  Around that time they learned to use iron ploughs and grow rice, a major transition from their previous economy of hunting and gathering.  Living in the mountains where the soil is less fertile they generally resorted to the slash-and-burn style of farming.  Contemporary governments have been weaning them away from this form of agriculture by introducing terracing, fruit orchards and crop substitution--tea and sugarcane instead of rice.
     Most Jingpo settlements are ensconced in the forest or within bamboo groves and all but hidden from view.  Traditional houses were made of wood and bamboo with thatched roofs.  The walls were of plaited bamboo and a square hearth occupied the centre of the main room.  The house stood on stilts or had one end against the higher part of the slope.  This is still the norm in most areas, but brick housing, with tile roofs, like the Dai, are the current choice for any Jingpo family that can afford it.  These rest on the ground, while separate sheds house the animals.
    Jingpo men have a reputation as great drinkers, though not, it must be pointed out, as drunken revelers.  But alcohol is part of a social encounter and men often carry wine flasks and cups with them.  Both men and women chew tobacco, claiming it as an aid to digestion.  Women like to chew catechu and betel nut, too, which darkens their teeth.  In the old days this was considered a sign of beauty.  The younger generation prefers sparkling white teeth though, and that particular Jingpo custom seems destined for desuetude.

Jingpo female clothing style

decorative rattan hoops

    The Jingpo still like their ethnic style of clothing, even if most reserve it for special occasions. Women make or weave the components, though nowadays the woman's wraparound skirt is more likely to be made on a knitting machine, if woolen, or a power loom, if cotton or silk. In the past during dry season they sat in the yard or on the porch with a back-strap loom hooked on to a house post.  Older women usually wear dark sarongs and jackets, while younger women wear red, with yellow trim and inlaid patterns, or a multi-colored piece with many intricate, inlaid patterns.
    The side-fastened, long-sleeved velvet jacket is plain black, but on special occasions- a Jingpo woman wears one covered with silver ornaments:  three rows of big half-globes, stitched around the collar, shoulders and back.  At the bottom of these rows hang many thin, flat pendants on chains.  These drop down to the midriff in front and below the shoulder blades in back.  A few round, embossed discs may also be attached to the bottom of the front of the jacket.  To complete her outfit the Jingpo woman wears a red woolen tubular hat and a dozen or more lacquered rattan waist hoops.

Jingpo monument in Yingjiang

    The men don't dress up so colorfully, even on festival days.  The older men tend to wear the older styles of Han clothes, the younger ones contemporary urban fashions.  On special occasions they will don a black vest and a white turban, the ends colored with many small, attached pompoms.  They also carry the Jingpo shoulder bag, of red wool, black strap, and covered in front with silver bulbs and pendants on chains just like the woman's jacket.  A sword, with a straight edge and no pointed end, in a decorated scabbard (more than likely made in Husa) is the final item. Traditionally, Jingpo men carried the sword at all times, for use in defense (rarely necessary) and as a cutting tool for chopping everything from trees to sugar cane.
    Besides these uses, the sword was and still is an essential part of the men’s outfit during the annual Munao Festival.  Groups of men wield their swords in stylized, synchronized patterns as part of a ritual dance.  Because of this Jingpo custom the people of Dehong have a saying, “The Achang make the swords; the Lisu climb the swords; the Jingpo dance the swords.”  Munao is a celebration of being Jingpo and the sword’s very prominent visibility in the event reflects its importance to the Jingpo cultural identity.   

"dancing the swords"

    In Jingpo mythology Munao is something people staged in gratitude for some favor or another.  Its origin is as old as that of the people themselves.  When the divine parents of Ning Gawn Na, the mythical Jingpo progenitor, lay in their deathbed, they instructed their son to give them a good sending off ceremony for their souls.  Then they would metamorphose into Heaven and Earth and Ning Gawn Na would become fully human and father the Jingpo race.  A proper send-off could only be a Munao Zongge, Jingpo words for "let's dance together."  But Ning Gawn Na did not know the dance, for the only performers were the children in the Kingdom of the Sun.
    One day, however, Grandfather Sun invited a representative of the bird community to the dance.  A sparrow attended and when he returned home he taught the other birds.  The peacock took on the lead singing role and the hornbill organized the choreography.  Ning Gawn Na and his wife happened to be watching and they took the dance home and taught others.  A wild boar cleansed the corral for them and two Han brothers sent a dragon robe for the dance leader to wear.  The Munao performance made the Jingpo more united, courageous and intelligent and so they have continued to stage it ever since, for four days beginning the full moon of the first lunar month.

the Munao dance

     Munao symbolizes the solidarity of the Jingpo people, so many separate villages join to celebrate it at one of the major festival sites such as the hills of Laying township, near Zhangfeng, and the knoll beside the Yunyan Pagoda on the outskirts of Yingjiang.  The latter keeps the Munao poles up all year, plus a wooden hall with a buffalo skull mounted over the front door.  Nearby, a white statue of a Jingpo man using his crossbow stands on a tall pedestal beside the pond.  Since it is beyond the urban area, and even the adjacent Dai village, the Yingjiang Munao grounds has a very rural atmosphere.
    Because it is the prefecture capital, Luxi (also known as Mangshi) hosts Munao in a big way, converting the athletic stadium into the staging grounds.  A large corral is constructed, with gates at two sides and viewing platforms for the spirits at the other two sides.  In the center the Jingpo erect four tall poles, painted with designs symbolizing aspects of their history and economic life.  Small paintings at the top of mountains, for example, represent their mythical Himalayan origin.  The crossed swords separating the two middle pillars remind them of their past battles, both against wild animals and human enemies.

Jingpo type of woodwind

    At the base of the pillars in front stands a large drum, beaten during the dance to signal the pace and rhythm.  To either side of this are gongs mounted in racks.  Behind the pillars sits an orchestra, mostly of horns and woodwinds.  Its members dress in fancy white coats with epaulets, black trousers and Jingpo headscarves.  When the dance begins they play, sometimes with a singer accompanying them, sometimes without.  Occasionally they pause and let an a cappella singer take the microphone or allow a long solo performance.  Usually the soloist plays the flute or a specifically Jingpo instrument comprising a buffalo horn attached to a bamboo flute, which makes a sound similar to the woodwind instrument played in funeral processions.
    Munao lasts four days, with one 90-minute dance in the morning and one in mid-afternoon.  On the third night the bigger host venues like Luxi will present a stage show of songs and dances of both Jingpo and Dai, young troupes and middle-aged ones.  A Lisu dance and the Wa Hair Dance may be included for good

preparing refreshments

Munao dance leader

measure. A great number of Dai attend Munao, dressed in their best brocaded sarongs, their jackets pinned together with filigreed gold butterflies.  A few Dai and Jingpo women take advantage of the event to open stalls by the stadium entrance, selling sarongs, silver ornaments, shoulder bags and Husa swords.  Only a few Dai participate in the dance, though, preferring to watch from the grandstand or outside the corral.
    Explosions and strings of firecrackers announce the beginning of the dance.  The corral is empty, save for the orchestra, which strikes up its first tune.  Then, slowly rocking in a two-step as they advance, the long line of dancers enters through the gate, led by four men in red or gold silk "dragon robes," like the ones presented by the Han brothers at the first Munao.  They hold their swords upright in front of them.  On their heads they wear painted, split-bamboo helmets that symbolize the origin of Munao.  On the sides wild boar tusks are attached, to remind them that the boar cleansed the first festival corral.  Affixed to the top of the helmet is a hornbill beak, in honor of the organizer of the Birds' Munao, from which the Jingpo learned the dance.  As a plume, the helmet uses feathers of the peacock and the hornbill, the singer and emcee at the Birds' Munao.

Munao at Luxi, the prefecture capital

    The line keeps to the corral railing until it has gone all the way around, then begins a more sinuous route in the open space around the poles. Eventually this fills up, too, and near the end of the dance the robed priests simply march back and forth in front of the drum. 
    Hundreds of Jingpo are by now in line, a group of women, then a group of men, with women slightly more in number.  Every variation of the Jingpo sarong is on display, including the tight, red woolen miniskirt version.  Men hold their swords aloft and sling the silver-laden bag over their shoulders.  Women wave fans or kerchiefs as they dance.  Outside the line, women attendants pour cups of rice-beer from bamboo containers to refresh the dancers.  And when the dance concludes, much of the crowd stays in the corral, snapping photos of each other now that they're dressed in their Jingpo best.  This is, after all, a festival that glorifies their ethnic identity, that reminds them no matter how much or how little they have assimilated into the modern world, this is who they all really are.

posts and priests of the Jingpo Munao

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